Maddison and Eva sat staring out into space together. When folding space to move faster than light, Tarraxen ships produced an amazing by-product in the form of a dazzling light show right through the entire visible spectrum for human eyes. The coloured ribbons danced and flickered as the ship passed by all manner of spacial anomalies and matter forms in an instant.

Felix and Lloyd entered the room to watch alongside the girls. Just as they got comfortable the light show came to a conclusion as the view returned to an iconic slab of fixed constellations.

"Aw, what gives?" asked Felix disappointed, "I just bloody sat down." The others shrugged, none the wiser as to what had happened then Emelia came in.

"Excellent. It appears we have arrived at your coordinates, Eva," she announced. The group jumped to their feet, Felix and Maddison squished there faces against the view-port trying to see Gaia.

"Umm, I can't see her. Is Gaia on the port side?" inquired Felix.

"Me either," added a concerned Maddison.

Emelia's face went blank for a second, "Erranos advises that he cannot locate your Gaia station. Eva, are you sure about your calculations?"

"Yes, of course!" Eva confirmed, "take me to him, please."

"Sure, not a problem," smiled Emelia. The four of them all followed as she led the way to the bridge before leaving to tend to the prisoners. Erranos had suggested they utilise drones or even the tarras to check in with the prisoners but Lloyd was adamant that would've been a terrible idea, instead requesting Emelia fulfil the role, which she happily accepted.

They found Erranos sitting at his command chair, there was nothing on any of the displays as he was able to link in with all of the ship's systems remotely. Knowing they were about to come in Erranos activated the viewers showing them what he was able to see, "Eva, as I am sure Emelia advised you, I am yet to locate your station."

"Yes, we heard," Eva answered lacking her usual confidence, "how far is your scanning range?"

"One-quarter of a light-year roughly," Erranos answered, "if your station were close by I should have found it already."

The faces of the group lost hope all too quickly. Gaia had always been heading toward the galactic centre, her speed would vary slightly but Eva widened her search parameters to encompass a much larger range.

"What if they stopped briefly?" Felix asked aloud, "it takes days for Gaia to reach her top speed, if they only stopped for even one day that would put them much further back."

Eva jumped to a station, "Erranos, can you please make a heading between these three stars, stopping every half a light year?"

"Of course," he nodded just as the Lotar panned a few degrees slowly before accelerating to low speed as Erranos adjusted his telemetry.

"Where will that take us?" Lloyd asked hoping not to have missed the obvious.

Eva looked at him and winked, "Earth," she said calmly, "if Gaia isn't where she should be, then we will just head backwards until we cross paths."

"Brilliant," praised Lloyd as he bowed to Eva humorously.

Felix and Maddison stared each other down in excitement, simply giddy from the fact that they would soon be home.

The small jumps Erranos was required to perform were too precise for Tarraxen space folding at full power. He would easily overshoot his mark by a few light-years if he wasn't able to restrict the power settings. His calculations settled on 18% power output and he proceeded with the first jump. In a momentary flash, they arrived in a new section of space and Erranos set to scanning for Gaia. But still, there was no sign of her.

"Shall I proceed with the next jump?" enquired Erranos.

"Please do," answered Eva as she walked over to Lloyd taking his hand and grasping it tightly. They smiled toward Felix and Maddison as they noticed they too were also holding hands, desperately hoping for success. The Lotar undertook three more jumps, each with no sign of Gaia. Eva's face turned red, "why?" she yelled, "why aren't they here? I don't understand." Lloyd did his best to comfort her but he knew she wasn't going to accept failure.

Maddison cleared her throat. "Is there a chance they altered course? What if a Titan returned with good news? That would mean Gaia would then head toward the new world right?"

"Actually, you're completely right," Eva concurred, "and that would mean," she paused to re-evaluate her thoughts, but her mouth continued to move without sound. She turned back to Erranos, "are you able to scan for our probes? One should have been left to direct incoming Titans toward our new home."

"I need more information from you, Eva. What type of signature would it advertise? Perhaps you have a frequency band to work with," elaborated Erranos.

"Yes yes, of course," Eva turned back to the station Erranos outfitted for her input and began typing away madly. The bridge was silent as Erranos began to scan for anything similar to a probe from Gaia.

"I have something," affirmed Erranos. The collective curiosity of the bridge spiked, "there appears to be a probe sitting just at the edge of my scanning range."

"Is there a signal?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes, however, it is weak. One moment, I will move us closer with sub-light thrusters," advised Erranos.

Lloyd smiled at Eva. "this is it, we're finally going home," he beamed as he kissed her cheek and stood back up to hear from Erranos.

"I am receiving data," informed Erranos. The bridge had become completely silent as all four humans were simultaneously holding their breath. "It appears to be a distress call. There is no additional information." They were shocked, their anxiety grew as the thought of Gaia having been destroyed chilled them to the bone.

"Erranos," Felix called over calmly as he stepped forward, "can we take one more jump please?"

"As you wish," complied Erranos.

In a flash, the jump carried them further. All eyes were fixated on the main viewing screen at the front of the bridge. There, off in the distance was the faint silhouette of Gaia. The girls cheered and Lloyd blubbered. Felix, however, was unsettled. His mind was picking up on something, he was unsure of what exactly, perhaps the distance made it harder to decipher but he was unnerved at the very least. Trying to listen to the hundreds of hazy voices was all but impossible, instead, Felix tried to single out one to focus on.

"No no no!" Felix cried, "something is wrong." The others went silent looking puzzled by his uneasiness, "Erranos, enhance the image please," he commanded.

Erranos complied. As the screen began to shimmer the humans all gasped collectively. Gaia was severely damaged, she had been struck by a large asteroid. Their panic quickly turned to desolation and pure terror as the screen gained complete clarity and there, protruding from Gaia's side, was a Scourge pod.

The four dropped to their knees in rapid succession. They either covered their mouths or simply shook their heads in pure disbelief.

"Should I attempt contact?" asked Erranos, "Eva? Eva?"

Eva blinked forcibly breaking from her trance, "yes sorry, please do," she called out still trying to process the grim image before her as she rose from the floor slowly.

Erranos moved the Lotar closer as they hailed the station.

"The channel is open," nodded Erranos.

"Hello hello this is Lieutenant Eva Croxen of the Hyperion, can anyone hear me?" she said calmly and clearly but the channel remained silent.

Erranos twitched and activated the Lotar's shields, "the station is arming weapons," he alerted them.

"This is Councillor Bligh. Lieutenant, that vessel is clearly not the Hyperion. Who are you?" she demanded with her aged voice shaking.

"Councillor, I am the inquisitor that was assigned to the Hyperion, my authorisation code is Echo-7836-Charlie-9902," responded Eva. They could hear Bligh mumbling to herself. Erranos noted that the weapons went offline so he deactivated the Lotar's shields.

"Oh my, Eva dear whatever happened to your Titan, and what in Gaia's name is that ship you're on?" ranted Bligh.

"Councillor, please, there is much to explain but we must help you first. What is the situation inside Gaia?" pleaded Eva.

"Well, I'm sure you've noticed we have guests, Dear. Gaia fired everything she had at that monstrosity but it couldn't be stopped. Most of her children have been lost. Those of us that have held on, are trapped in what remains of North Alpha. Gaia sealed us in and flooded the outer compartments with radiation from one of the reactors. It has kept us alive for weeks now but we're losing power and running out of food," explained Bligh, her voice more shaky than ever.

"Don't worry, Ma'am, we're going to get you out of there. How many survivors are there?" asked Eva.

"Ah, well I, I'm not too sure dear. I'll just put Gaia on, she'll know more than I," concluded Bligh.

"Yes, thank you, Councillor," replied Eva, "Gaia, can you hear me?"

"Hello, Eva, I'm so glad you're alright," Gaia responded cheerfully, "the answer is 29,521 survivors." The group on the bridge winced at Gaia's words. When their expedition first began, Gaia's population was just over 2 million.

Eva asked Erranos, and he nodded confirming they indeed had room to accept all of Gaia's remaining children.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Gaia. Don't worry, this ship has enough room and facilities to cater to all of them. Do you have any docking ports that haven't been compromised?" Eva enquired hoping for some good news.

"Yes. There is still access via Corridor C on level 25. Tell me, Eva, are you the only survivor of the Hyperion?" Gaia asked.

"No, there are others, we are few though and we also have prisoners from a mutiny on board the Crius," replied Eva.

"The Crius?" Gaia sounded shocked, "what in my name was that ship doing near your objective I wonder? Well, we can discuss it at length after we resolve the current predicament," she noted.

"Yes, of course. Please send a copy of your schematics over here so our pilot can organise docking," requested Eva.

"Will do, good luck," replied Gaia.

Erranos received the data and set to work with Emelia modifying one of the Lotar's docking ports to accommodate with Gaia's end. Still in shock, Felix, Lloyd and Maddison sat in silence on the bridge. Their home, their birthplace, their surrogate mother was now adrift in space, heavily damaged and still being violated by the Scourge. More than a million of her children had now been lost in little over a year.

Felix rubbed his forehead trying to ignore the voices of peril and dismay coming in strong from those that remained on Gaia.

Maddison watched him and seeing his pain she tried her best to comfort him.

While the work continued on the docking system, Eva filled Gaia and Councillor Bligh in on the details of their adventure. She explained how and why the Hyperion, Crius, and Theia were lost along with most of their crews. She eluded briefly to the Drusai but that they left them on good terms.

What concerned Gaia and Bligh most was the involvement of the Tarrax. Why would such an advanced race care about the dealings of humans they pondered. Eva explained as well as she could that the Tarrax were indirectly responsible for the Scourge and thus they felt obligated to assist wherever possible. Being essentially immortal, the Tarrax are not at all concerned with concepts of debt or privacy. Lloyd had asked, but Erranos was quite clear that he would not gift the humans with Tarraxen weapons technology. The Tarrax were of the opinion that unless a race was able to develop technology of their own accord then they should not have it.

Something else had occurred to Gaia however, what would be her fate?

Eva cringed knowing exactly what Erranos would tell her, "Gaia, I'm sorry but the Scourge can't be removed," Eva's eyes began to water, "you and your entire station have to be destroyed."

"Now now, it's alright child. As long as my children go on and continue to survive, that is all I could wish for," she admitted humbly, but it didn't help.

The four of them were devastated at the thought of losing Gaia as well.

Shortly after, Erranos contacted Eva advising that the docking modifications were complete. Gaia and Bligh set to work instructing the survivors that they would be boarding a new ship to safety and began to organise them into groups.

Felix and Maddison were already waiting by the airlock when they were joined by Lloyd and Eva. Emelia wanted to join them in greeting the new refugees but Maddison asked her to sit out until enough time had passed for the initial shock to wear off.

Additionally, Felix had asked Erranos to keep the tarras well hidden while they processed the survivors.

The doors opened and there stood Councillor Bligh. Behind her was a paired line stretching off beyond view. Their faces were bleak and exhausted, many were carrying children and a few significant belongings. Felix was unable to filter out the heavy inflow of raw emotions and was forced to excuse himself. Maddison accompanied him back to their quarters before she headed back to help with orientation. It was plain to see that many of those boarding had recently lost friends, loved ones or even children, some were less lucky having lost all three. Many of the adults were beginning to starve, all the surviving children had been fed without question, in an attempt to keep them from panicking and to place morale as high as possible among the survivors.

"This way, Councillor," instructed Eva as she gestured to her left, "the corridors have all been illuminated in green to help everyone find the accommodation sections of the ship." Eva offered her arm to Bligh with a generous smile. Bligh nodded stepping onboard slowly, looking all around her as she walked along trying to take in everything. The other survivors followed Bligh on board and were directed by Lloyd.

Traipsing in among the refugees was Maddison's father, Silas Tascott. He boarded halfway through the process minutes after Maddison had just left with Felix. Silas had been informed that a Titan's crew had come to their rescue but was not aware which Titan. As the survivors filtered through and into their new quarters they were told very little about what had led to their rescue.

After almost four hours, the survivors were all on board the Lotar and were being fed. Maddison apologised profusely for the only available food on offer, courtesy of Erranos, although not one of the adult survivors complained. As the refugees began to settle much of their anxiety lifted, enough so that Felix was able to leave isolation in a meditative state to come out and greet people. With so little understanding of his new abilities to guide him, Felix found it difficult to proceed day to day while ignoring the many thoughts around him.

Back on the bridge, Eva and Lloyd explained to Gaia that Erranos had sent a request to the Tarraxen High Command for a Barooda class battlecruiser to assist in destroying the Scourge. The closest ship was over a month away, so they all had plenty of time to say goodbye to Gaia before her demise. Initially, Erranos was not aware that Gaia was an Artificial Intelligence in addition to being the name of the station itself, something he surely found odd that his new friends neglected to mention. Maddison and Eva spoke with Emelia, desperately hoping for another solution.

"Please allow me a moment," requested Emelia, "I will discuss all other options with Erranos, so hopefully we don't have to lose her," she informed them.

Much more than just a mother to all her occupants, Gaia was also considered to be a form of living archives. If she were to vanish, all of recorded human history would be lost with her. Emelia communicated with Erranos remotely whilst still sitting with Maddison and Eva. Each time Emelia stared off blankly for a moment, they knew she was directly linked in conversation with Erranos.

Maddison shot an unsettled glare toward Eva, "don't have to lose her? Is that possible?" she gasped, Eva just as unsure merely shrugged awaiting on what news Emelia would have.

Emelia finished conferring with Erranos and smiled, "Eva, Gaia is essentially an advanced computer program, an adaptive and intuitive artificial intelligence, is she not?"

"Well, yeah sure, I guess so, but you already knew that, so how does it help us?" Eva asked confused.

"Well, you see, it appears as though Erranos was under the impression that Gaia was just the name bestowed upon the station itself," Eva and Maddison's faces were stern trying to predict where Emelia's reasoning was headed. "The good news is, if Gaia should so choose, she could be transferred to this Lotar becoming its AI. That way she could remain in existence and her collective knowledge of human history would not be lost," smiled Emelia. Maddison's face beamed, Eva was still fixated on the first sentence just waiting for the catch.

"So what's the bad news?" Eva asked sceptically.

"Erranos and I have reviewed her schematics and to transfer her we would first have to download her entire program onto an external storage system, manually," explained Emelia.

"So someone has to go back on board to do it? Where is the closest access point to her mainframe?" asked Eva.

"That's simple, the closest access point is within the safety zone that Gaia already erected to keep the refugees safe," Emelia said cheerfully.

"That doesn't seem so bad then," added Maddison, "where's the bad news in that? Or am I missing something here?" Maddison scoffed. She and Eva both sat forward waiting on Emelia's answer.

"Once the download begins, Gaia will be offline and the emergency protocols will activate," said Emelia. Eva cringed as she had figured out what that meant. Emelia continued, "under such protocols, all internal doors will open automatically. In short, there will be nothing to keep the Scourge forces at bay."

Maddison turned red, "can't we just send drones in?" she asked in a huff.

"No," snapped Eva, "sorry Maddison, but I just realised something. Only a member of the High Council or an inquisitor can access Gaia's mainframe."

"Oh no," Maddison sighed as the reality of gruesome nightmare set in, "but it's a suicide mission. Emelia, how long will the download take?"

"Erranos thinks about ten minutes or so," she replied.

Maddison jumped up from her seat, "what?" she barked, "that will be an eternity with those things in there. This is ridiculous, there must be another way."

"Not that I can think of," added Eva.

Maddison scowled sitting back down with her arms folded looking away. No one spoke for a minute as they tried desperately to think of another solution. Frustrated, Maddison took to her feet and stormed off in search of Lloyd. If anyone had a chance of talking Eva out of it he had the best shot. When she found him, Lloyd was with Felix checking over the manifesto of the Gaia refugees.

Maddison burst in ranting incoherently, Felix tried to calm her until he realised her aggression was aimed at Lloyd at which point Felix promptly shut his mouth and sat back down to watch the show.

"Well if she's going, then so am I," Lloyd claimed proudly.

Maddison's face turned a more intense shade of red, "what? No! That's not the-" she was cut short by Felix.